* Importance: Backups are recommended for persistent data to another system or service outside of the cloud.

* Importance: Backups are recommended for persistent data to another system or service outside of the cloud.

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= Free software =

= Free software =

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* Related to [[#Portability]]

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* Related to [[#Portability Portability]]

* Cloud eviscerates software freedom:

* Cloud eviscerates software freedom:

Revision as of 00:51, 9 July 2009

The World Economic Forum started a research project at Davos 2009
concerning cloud computing, which they broadly define to include all
kinds of remote services, from Software as a Service to virtual
machines.

Andy Oram was asked to provide some ideas on the implications of cloud
computing on business as well as its future operating environment.
This wiki is a discussion forum where anyone with relevant and valid
ideas can suggest points for his reply.

Portability

Importance: Backups are recommended for persistent data to another system or service outside of the cloud.

Feasibility: All APIs can be emulated, so in theory organizations can use the same scripts and procedures to replicate operations in multiple services

Trends: There are calls for "open cloud computing," referring to standards that would facilitate portability.

Standards could lead to automatic, instant migration between cloud vendors.

As with all standardization, it's hard to:

Get vendors to cooperate on advances that would reduce client lock-in

Slow down innovation in an emerging technology enough to produce a standard

Benefits and drawbacks for potential clients

Total reliance on a cloud service (virtual machine services or SaaS)

May be valuable for start-ups and skunkworks

For larger organizations, useful for some well-defined functions, particularly non-critical ones. (But note that many companies use services for customer relations management and for paying employees, which could be considered critical functions.)

Requires a thorough understanding of the cloud service's operations, the risks involved, and management techniques to handle the service and its risks.

Use of cloud to supplement in-house operations

May be useful for:

Handling peaks and spikes

Planning growth that will eventually be moved in-house

Requires skills in both domains (in-house and cloud) as well as strategies for migrating and replicating between them.

Environmental implications

Energy trade-offs between concentrated megaservers and smaller systems distributed around the world.

Free software

New software and patches can be built on free software while still being hidden behind the cloud (except free software under the rarely used Affero GPL).

(Mostly in regard to Saas) Even releasing the source code would have little to no effect, because the real lock-in for cloud services is its role as central repository: storing the data and (for sites with community aspects) providing connections among different visitors.